From prison to a paycheck, By Howard Husock, August 3, 2012, Wall Street Journal: “Hector Morales might not seem, at first, to be an American success story. At age 50, he works the graveyard shift-7 p.m. to 5 a.m.-at the back of a garbage truck, part of a three-man crew that lifts and loads 80,000 pounds of waste each night in New York City. It’s his first job in years. The native of Paterson, N.J., a high-school dropout, still owes more than $9,000 in child-support payments to the state of New Jersey. But compared with Mr. Morales’s situation a year ago, his story is a success. Then, he was completing a five-year sentence at the Northern State Prison in Newark, N.J. The former heroin addict has spent, by his own estimate, 18 years behind bars, mostly on drug-related charges. Today, Newark-based Action Carting, one of the largest commercial disposal firms operating in New York, considers Mr. Morales to be a model employee and a good prospect for promotion if he completes his plan to get a commercial truck driver’s license. Currently, he’s on track to earn more than $60,000 a year, including overtime. Every week, part of his check goes to pay off his child-support debt…”
Day: August 6, 2012
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Republicans blast rise in food stamp rolls, but House leaders stop short of cutting aid, By Bruce Alpert, August 3, 2012, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Republican conservatives, including Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, and Gov. Bobby Jindal, have criticized the Obama administration for steadily rising food stamp rolls during the past couple of years. But GOP congressional leaders put the kibosh this week on trying to cut the assistance, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, delaying consideration of a new farm bill partly because of disputes about what to do about food stamps. Some conservatives wanted more cuts than the $16 billion over 10 years proposed in the legislation, but Democrats said even the lower amount is too severe when so many Americans are unemployed…”